All schools and colleges will be closed in Delhi given the huge rise in Covid cases in the capital, along different parts of the country, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reported on Friday.
A few states and territories including Delhi have announced new restrictions such as night curfews amid a new wave of COVID-19 that has pushed infection numbers to record highs. On Thursday, the daily case count in the capital breached the 7,000-mark for the first time this year.
Most of the classes were already suspended in Delhi but students from Class 9 through 12 were attending school if permitted by their parents because of their board exams.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) which governs many schools the nation over has confronted analysis from the opposition for going ahead of the exams despite the spike.
“It is downright irresponsible of boards like the CBSE to force students to sit for exams under the prevailing circumstances. Board exams should either be cancelled, rescheduled or arranged in a manner that does not require the physical presence of children at crowded exam centres,” Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on Twitter.
The CBSE has reported that Class 10 examinations will be held between May 4 and June 7 and those for Class 12 would be held between May 4 and June 15.
Generally, practical exams are conducted in January and written exams start in February and finish up in March.
There have been demands from students for holding online examinations and over one lakh students have already signed a petition to the CBSE for the cause.
CBSE officials, however, said as per COVID guidelines, exam centres across the country have been increased by 40-50 per cent to ensure social distancing among students.
Schools the nation over were closed in March a year ago to contain the spread of COVID-19 in front of a cross country lockdown.
A few states began resuming the schools partially from October last year, but physical classes are again being suspended considering the massive rise in coronavirus cases.
India reported almost 1.32 lakh new diseases and 780 passings on Friday – the biggest every day increase in fatalities since mid-October. Most of the cases again came from Maharashtra, home to financial capital Mumbai.
Inching closer to Brazil’s 1.32 crore caseload, the number of coronavirus cases in India has swelled to 1.3 crore – the third-highest after the United States and the South American country – and total deaths to 1,67,642.
